Determinants of smallholder farmers' adoption of adaptation strategies to climate change in Eastern Tigray National Regional State of Ethiopia

Abstract

Climate change has been significantly affecting smallholder farmer's livelihood and food security. However, efforts to support farmer adaptation are hampered by the lack of scientific and context based evidences. Hence, this paper identified the major adaptation strategies to climate change (CC) and analysed the determinants of adoption of adaptation strategies to climate change in Eastern Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Three-stage sampling technique was used to select the study sites and sample households. Copies of 485 questionnaires were administered and complemented with data from focus group discussion and key informant interviews. Results of the descriptive analysis identified that use of soil and water conservation practices, planting trees, improved crop seeds, irrigation and use of non-farm income generating activities are the most utilized adaptation strategies to climate change. Results of the multinomial logistic regression (MNL) revealed that households' adaptation to climate change was found positively and significantly affected by education, livestock holding, cooperatives membership, extension services, farmers income and households perception to climate change. On the contrary, age of the household head, distance to market and agro-ecology were found negatively and statistically affecting smallholder farmers adoption of adaptation strategies to climate change. Thus, public policy on climate change adaptation need to take into account local people's resource base and their lifelong outlooks so as to reduce the potential drawbacks of climate change on farmers' livelihood.

Perception Driven From Farmers’ Socio-economic Characteristics Towards Tackling Climate Change

“…From the findings, farmers with formal education where of the view that climate change can be tackled and this could be because attaining formal education enhances farmers' options to adapt to climate change. This is consistent with the study conducted by Gebru et al (2020) which discovered that farmer's education has a positive and significant influence on adoption of various climate change strategies such as crop varieties, diversification and soil and water conservation. Furthermore, farmers with higher educational level were found to be in a better position to adapt to climate change due to their knowledge and ability to access information on climate change and adaptation options (Ndamani & Watanabe, 2016).…”

Quantifying the determinants of climate change adaptation strategies and farmers' access to credit in South Africa

“…Existing empirical studies listed the most used adaptation strategies in African nations such as improved crop varieties, planting trees, soil conservation, changing planting dates and irrigation (Gwambene et al, 2015;Gebru et al, 2020). Several other studies (Bhatt et al 2014;Chapagain et al 2017;Devkota et al 2017;Dhakal et al 2016;Sujakhu et al 2016) have reported that climate change is a threat to agricultural production and sustainability due to the projected variability in temperature and precipitation, and more recurrent droughts, and it is, hence, necessary to study the associated indicators and determinants of farmers choice of adaptation strategies.…”

Factors Affecting Farmer's Climate Risk Perception in Developed and Developing Countries : Evidence From Switzerland and Ghana

“…The estimation result shows that age has a non-significant effect on farmer's perception toward climate change both in Switzerland and Ghana. Several studies show that age significantly affects farmers' perception of climate change (Adzawla et al, 2019;Gebru et al, 2020). Furthermore, Koutsou et al (2014) stated that young farmers have a better perception and adaptation to climate change.…”

“…Farmers' perceptions of climate change are among the fundamental drivers that drive farmers to implement autonomous adaptation. For example, farmers' perceptions significantly affect farmers' adaptation to climate change in Saesietsaeda Emba, Ethiopia (Gebru et al, 2020). Also, farmers' perceptions of climate affect the form of adaptation carried out by wheat farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India (Singh, 2020).…”